It's my birthday too now.

Cheers to the best 25 years the planet has seen!  And cheers to my esteemed gentleman friend (among others) throwing a semi-surprise bash for me!

The birthday started at Thursday's music night with the boys.  Right after midnight The Boy pulled two tickets out of his wallet.  To a cool concert?  Nope, even better; Cesko Slovenska Superstar.  Which is apparently the equivalent to American Idol here.  One of his students gave them to him.  It'll either be the best or worst thing ever.  I'm excited.

Friday I was told to go to the boy's place around three.  Shortly after I arrived his roommate B showed up with flowers in one hand and a leash on the end of a huge muscular Amstaff in the other.  Pretty much every time I see a dog I name the breed or want to pet it or just say "awww!".  B has been here a few years and Boy asked B if she knew anybody with a dog.  I don't think he expected her to bring a beast of solid muscle that came with an entire page of instructions.  Ekko is really sweet and loving and adorable.  With people.  But he kind of wants to kill any other boy dog he sees.  And he was ours for the day!  Not only did he come with instructions, he came with a muzzle so no worries.  We walked him around and let him roll in the grass and dug our heels into the pavement whenever we saw another dog he didn't like the look of.  I think Boy thought he'd bombed when he knew we weren't going to be able to realy play or take him to any parks (this is Prague, everybody has a dog, and most are stupidly off-leash).  But I had a lot of fun.  It was hot anyway and Ekko seemed a little confused about who we were and where his daddy was, so we took him home after a while and just played with him in the flat.  He knows B and relaxed more there.   

Part 3 of the birthday fun was going up to Petrin hill which I'd never gotten around to doing before.  I'd mentioned that to Boy and he wanted to take me.  I don't know why I'd never gone but it's beautiful!  There is a train that takes you straight up but we took the hike since it was so nice and pretty.  I didn't know what was going to happen there but I was pretty convinced it was just going to be us, other friends "had plans" or "work" or were "going out of town" or whatev which I was cool with.  However, we turned a corner and took a path and there stood C and J!  And they had booze!  We found a table and a while later B and a few others showed up with Ekko again.  Boy and I went up to the top of the tower which offered a great view of the city.  After that we all got dinner (ate outside since we had a dog but it was nice).  The waiter was completely enamored with him and brought him a bowl of water and asked us if it was okay to give him a bone.  That dog was one happy boy.  He didn't even notice other dogs around with that greasy, meaty thing in front of him. 

Then to a favorite bar in our hood, Zizkov.  Mojitos galore!  P tried to teach me how to say "It's my birthday" in Czech, but I kept saying "It's my I don't understand!"  We all  got pretty sleepy after a while and headed home. 

Great birthday in The Prague!  Had a lazy day and while I should take care of some stuff I kind of want to keep riding the birthday wave tonight.  We'll see if anything happens.